Historical and statistical soccer stories from all over the world, old and a bit older.

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Monday, August 12, 2013

Vasco da Gama, the first champions of South America

South
America’s Club Championship 1948

In 1948
Brazilian club Vasco da Gama was crowned first South American Club Champion
ever. In a tournament with most reigning champions of South
American countries taking part, it was the first real continental championship for clubs
ever, beating the European Cup by seven years. Staged in Santiago, Chile, this
tournament although never repeated, was looked upon as a major trophy. So it
was no surprise that Vasco da Gama received a hero’s welcome back in soocercrazy Brazil.

During the
years clubs and associations had organized many small friendly tournaments with
invited clubs from all over the world. The Mitropa Cup (‘Mit’ deriving from
Mittel, meaning central) was a bit more serious, bringing the best clubs
together from seven European countries (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Italy, Yugoslavia, and occasionally Switserland and Rumania) for a prestigious
yearly tournament from 1927 until 1940. In South America summer tournaments
were common during the forties, and now Colo Colo’s president Robinson Alvarez was
the driving force behind the 1948 South American Club Championship, the first tournament that covered the best
teams of a whole continent.

Champions of 1947

Seven
clubs got an invitation to play for the first South American Club Championship
in Santiago, Chile. Most of them were crowned league champions of 1947, just a few weeks earlier. These
were the lucky ones:

Club

Country

Reason for invitation

Honours in last 10 years

River Plate

Argentina

National champions

Champions 1941, 1942, 1945 and 1947

CD Litoral

Bolivia

Top team in Bolivia

No national league

Vasco da Gama

Brazil

Rio-state champions 1947

State champions 1945 and 1947

Colo Colo

Chile

National champions

Champions 1939, 1941, 1944 and 1947

Emelec

Ecuador

Top team in Ecuador

No national league

Deportivo Municipal

Peru

Number 2 in 1947, champions Atletico Chalaco declined

Champions 1938, 1940, 1943

Nacional Montevideo

Uruguay

National champions

Champions 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947

Ecuadors best team, Emelec

No
invitation was sent to Colombia, where the first professional league started later in
1948, while for Paraguay the Civil War might be the reason for not
participating. Although Paraguay did have a professional league that year, won by
Olimpia Asuncion. Lowly rated Venezuela wasn’t considered, because the country played its soccer mainly in Central America. Venezuela didn't join the South American Football
Federation Conmebol until 1952.

Favorites

Upfront, especially
River Plate and also Nacional Montevideo were the big favorites. In those days Argentina
and Uruguay were the leading force in South America, Brazil only being a
sleeping giant with lots of potential, but hardly any silverware to show for.

River Plater had a wonderful team, with a very profilic attacking force. In the national campaign
of 1947, all five forwards scored ten or more league goals: Alfredo di Stefano
made 27 (which crowned him topscorer) Angel Labruna 16, Felix Lousteau 13, Juan
Manuel Moreno 10 and Hugo Reyes also 10.

Nacional Montevideo won
Uruguayan titles back to back in the forties, with Argentinian Atilio Garcia
almost always claiming the topscorer-title - eight times since 1938. With Eusebio Tejera, Schubert
Gambetta , Anibal Paz en Rodolfo Pini Nacional had four players that would
become World Champion in 1950. And they had 21-year old Walter Gomez, who a few years later signed for River Plate and therefore missed out on the World Cup, as
Uruguay ruled not to include players from abroad in their squad.

Outsiders

Host of the tournament, Colo Colo

Vasco da Gama was one
of the leading teams in the Rio-state, together with Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo. Their
best players at the time were goalkeeper Moacyr Barbosa, defender Wilson, midfielder
Lele, playmaker Danilo and forwards Chico, Maneca, Friaca and certainly Ademir Menezes. Except for Wilson and
Lele, these players were the core of the Brazilian team that lost the World Cup
two and a half years later. They won the 1947 state championship unbeaten (17
victories in 20 matches), which earned them the nickname The Victory Express (O
Exprresso da Victória).

Colo Colo thought
they might have a chance, having one of their best squads ever. So they scheduled
their match against favorite River Plate as the last match of the tournament,
hoping it would be the final. Legend coach Enrique Sorrel could count Jorge Penaloza (14 league goals in
1947) , Pedro Hugo Lopez (11), Juan Aranda (8) and club-icon Alfonso Domniguez (6)
for scoring goals. Colo Colo also brought in four guest players to strengthen the
team, among them Audax Italiano’s Carlos Varela. Twenty-year old Raimundo
Infante (Un. Catolica) also played one game during this tournament.

The
tournament

Alfonso Dominguez,
who played his last match for Colo Colo
during this tournament

The
schedule for the round-robin tournament was a bit off. It was decided to play
two matches every three or four days. In total, the tournament took five weeks (February 11 until
March 17) to complete. Colo Colo’s ambition collapsed at the first day of
competition, as minors Emelec held on to a draw after even leading 2-0 early in
the match.

The big
match in the first stage of the tournament was Vasco da Gama against Nacional
Montevideo. Both had won their first game. Nacional proved to be no match for
the Brazilians, who won easily 4-1. Unfortunately, for Vasco’s star striker
Ademir Menezes it was his last match of the tournament, due to injury.

looking at the first eleven matches, there was only one other real surprise, Deportivo
Municipal beating Colo Colo 3-1. The overall standings halfway through (eleven
matches played) the tournament were as follows:

Club

Games

Won

Draw

Lost

Points

Goals

Vasco da Gama

4

4

0

0

8

11-2

River Plate

2

2

0

0

4

6-0

Nacional

3

2

0

1

4

7-7

Colo Colo

3

1

1

1

3

7-7

Dep. Municipal

4

1

0

3

2

5-10

Emelec

3

0

1

2

1

2-7

Litoral

3

0

0

3

0

4-9

Legendary striker Atilio Garcia (Nacional)

The next
big match was matchnumber 14 on March 3: Nacional Montevideo against River
Plate. Without Alfredo di Stefano, River Plate was no match for Nacional, who
fought for their last chance. Goals by Atilio Garcia, Luis Ernesto Castro and Juan
Ramon Orlandi gave Nacional a comfortable 3-0 win and temporarely second place in the
tournament. Meanwhile, Vasco da Gama could only manage a 1-1 against Colo Colo
in their fifth match. Two days later, Nacional waisted their chances losing 3-2
to Colo Colo.

Clash of the titans

So it all
came down to the Vasco da Gama against River Plate match. For the Brazilians,
it was their last match and a draw would
be enough to secure the title. Still, the Argentinians were the big favorite,
with Alfredo di Stefano playing his second match of the tournament – he had just scored three in his first match, against Litoral. It proved to be a nerve wrecking match with
lots of brilliant saves from both Barbosa and River Plate’s Hector Grisetti. Defender
Wilson played a great game against Di Stefano. Angel Labruna waisted the
biggest chance of the first half, as Barbosa denied his penalty.

Scene from the decisive match Vasco - River

The
spectators were in for another treat during the second 45 minutes. Both Maneca and
Wilson had to be substituted, while Rivers Hugo Reyes and Vasco’s Chico were
sent off for bad behaviour. The last five minutes were perhaps the best five
minutes in the entire career of Vasco’s goalie Moacyr Barbosa. With superb
reflexes he saved the point for his team, and by doing so singlehandedly won the cup for
his club Vasco da Gama.

Unfortunately,
this tournament proved to be a one-time affair, as it took twelve years until its successor, the Copa Libertadores, got on its way in 1960.

It produced a famous winner though, Vasco da Gama surely
was one of the best teams in South America those days, and probably in the
world.

On a personal level, Vasco da Gama’s goalkeeper Moacyr Barbosa was definitely the
best player in Santiago those five weeks. But many great strikers also showed
their talent, as no less than 76 goals were scored in 21 matches.

But the tournaments topscorer was a
fairly unknown player from Bolivians Litoral: Argentinian-born Roberto Capparelli
(26 years old) scored seven of his clubs nine goals. Not much is known of this
player, although he did compete (with most of his teammates at Litoral) at the
World Cup 1950, losing the one match against Uruguay 8-0.